If Mayor Rob Ford thought he would be done with legal appeals for a while if he won his conflict of interest case on Friday, he now knows he was wrong.

George Foulidis, owner of the Boardwalk Pub in the Beach, has appealed his defeat in the defamation lawsuit he filed against Ford. Ontario Superior Court Justice John Macdonald ruled in December that Ford did not defame Foulidis when he criticized the controversial sole-sourced deal between the city and Foulidis’s company, Tuggs Inc.

Foulidis declined to comment. His court filing claims that Macdonald made 15 errors of fact and law.

Foulidis is represented by Brian Shiller, a partner of Clayton Ruby, the lawyer who contested the conflict of interest case. Ford’s lawyer, Gavin Tighe, said the Foulidis appeal is “wholly without merit” and that he will respond “vigorously.”

Speaking to the Toronto Sun’s editorial board during the 2010 mayoral election, Ford said he believed the deal was corrupt, but he added two qualifiers: “I can’t accuse anyone, or I can’t pinpoint it.” Macdonald said a reasonable person would understand that Ford was merely voicing unsubstantiated suspicion.

Macdonald also said Foulidis had not even proved that Ford was referring to him in particular, since it was not clear that he was the “face” of Tuggs, whose official corporate profile he was not listed on. And Macdonald said he had “serious doubt” about the credibility of Foulidis’s testimony.

The appeal filing argues that, among other mistakes, Macdonald was wrong to find Foulidis an unreliable witness, wrong in failing to find that Ford’s comments referred to Foulidis, and wrong to conclude that a reasonable person would understand that Ford was not accusing Foulidis himself of corruption.

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